Kurdiji 1.0

$240,012
of $280,000 goal

Kurdiji 1.0 – An app by Australian Indigenous Elders designed to save young Indigenous lives(All donations will go to the creation of this app as this is not an 'all or nothing' campaign. Please message us if your donation needs DGR status)

When a young man committed suicide in 2005, in the remote community of Lajamanu, local Warlpiri elders said ‘Enough is enough’. Decades of western medical intervention had failed to stop indigenous suicides and, in 2005, Lajamanu’s elders took matters into their own hands.

With help from friends, Lajamanu established Milpirri festival to spread the traditional ideas of ‘Kurdiji’ among their young people and to foster a sense of belonging. They began to fight for every single young indigenous life in their community.

Now those same elders want to bring Kurdiji into the digital age, with a community created app based on stories, ceremonies and law. They want to fight for all aboriginal lives, not just those in remote or traditional communities.

They have partnered with an expert team including technologists, photographers and a leading clinical psychologist from The Black Dog Institute. Kurdiji 1.0 is crowdfunding on Gofundme until Monday 5th June and asks that you chip in $5 to make the project a reality. As a community led project we are relying on your generosity to help us get this project off the ground.

￼Three aboriginal people take their own lives every week in Australia, and suicide is the leading cause of death for young indigenous people. Young aboriginal people are now four times more likely to take their own life than their non-indigenous peers, and the suicide rate for young indigenous men is the highest in the world.

But there hasn’t been a suicide in Lajamanu since 2005.

The ideas of Kurdiji belong to an initiation ceremony of the same name. For most of Aboriginal history, these ideas were only accessible through Kurdiji ceremony or directly from elders in community. Warlpiri people are changing their laws, giving wide public access to these ideas for the purpose of saving lives.

The creation of the Kurdiji 1.0 app represents a turning point in Aboriginal Australia and, we hope, will result in similar projects being launched in the future.

In the process of sharing Kurdiji through their Milpirri festival, the elders of Lajamanu forged strong bonds with their non-indigenous friends - some of whom had encountered ceremony for the very first time through the festival. Now some of those friends are working with Lajamanu’s elders to make this app a reality.

￼￼￼How will the app work?Using 3D visualisation of ceremony and dance, audio recordings, video and text, Kurdiji 1.0 will provide some of the cultural nourishment provided by initiation in community. The app will reach out to young people who can’t live on country, or who feel cut off or isolated. By reconnecting people with language, skin name, ceremony and law, this app will increase resilience by creating a sense of belonging.

￼￼￼What is Kurdiji?

We are honoured to have legendary actor Jack Charles as our patron. He says:

“Kurdiji is a Warlpiri word meaning ‘to shield or protect’. For thousands of years, the idea of Kurdiji has been used to empower young people and prevent suicide. Lajamanu wants to bring Kurdiji into the digital age, with a community created app based on these stories, ceremonies and law. Designed to support young people build and maintain resilience and self-worth.”

Kurdiji’ (shield) is the Warlpiri word for ‘shield’, and it also means ‘to protect’, ‘to ward off’ or ‘to block’. ‘Kurdiji’ is also the name of certain initiation ceremonies for young women and men. These Kurdiji ceremonies teach young people about skin name, ceremony, language and law.

The basic principle of Kurdiji is that if ceremony, skin name, language and law are strong, then the individual is also strong. In this diagram, you can see the four pillars and, in the centre, ‘land’, or ‘home’, which is also the person themselves.

￼￼￼Kurdiji guards against youth suicide by reinforcing high self-worth before suicidal thoughts occur. It is the shield that keeps young indigenous people safe from the problems of living in and around white society. Kurdiji connects people to their culture, their community, and country.

Kurdiji teaches us to relate to each other, to the natural world and to other creatures we share the earth with. It teaches us how to care for country, how to talk to country, and how to listen when country talks back.

Dr Fiona Shand, from Black Dog Institute, says:

“One of the things that struck me when listening to Wanta Jampijinpa Patrick speak about Warlpiri ways was the complex systems of connection – between people, with country, with spirit. A strong sense of connection or belonging is very clearly protective against suicide. Kurdiji 1.0 also aims to build a stronger sense of identity, which we expect will also be protective for young people. It’s starting from a place of strength and building on that.“

The Kurdiji 1.0 app will provide a parallel approach to treating depression and suicidal thoughts by non-indigenous means. It aims to build people up before mental health issues become a problem – it will be a shield for people.

￼￼￼Who is creating this app?Kurdiji 1.0 will be community-led, community-designed and community empowering.

Using mobile technology, the Warlpiri are working with a team of researchers to put the life-saving ideas of Kurdiji into the hands of hundreds, if not thousands, of young indigenous people.

Warlpiri communities have a long history of engaging with technology. They’ve recently produced a digital storybook, which communicates their ideas about land management, and have collaborated in the production of a large number of films. Working with others to create an app is just an extension of the Warlpiri way of reaching out to people through technology.

Warlpiri Elder Steve Wanta Jampijinpa Patrick says:

“Been working with these kardiya fellas on this app. It’s called Kurdiji, and Kurdiji means ‘shield’ for us Warlpiri, it’s initiation ceremony as well. It’s meant to teach people to look at life and really protect life - shield them off from all the elements of negative things of the world. This app will give hope through the way Kurdiji brings out the best in challenging life and in challenging ourselves too.”

“This app would try to challenge something like suicide within young people in indigenous communities. It will do really good things and bring hope to the communities.”

Kids from the local community will work alongside the technology team to create the app, and its content, learning technology and digital media skills. They will be involved in 3D motion capture of dance and traditional hand signals, audio recordings of language, and representations of song-lines and story.

￼￼￼The Kurdiji project will enable Aboriginal elders to trial their own approach to suicide prevention in their own communities. The app is aimed at all indigenous people, regardless of their background, language or community and non-indigenous people can also benefit.

While the initial version will be offered in Warlpiri and English language, we hope to create future versions in as many different indigenous languages as possible.

Who is working with us?The Kurdiji project is working closely with the Lajamanu Kurdiji Group, a group of senior Warlpiri men and women who promote respect for indigenous and nonindigenous law in community.

We have been fortunate enough to be helped by the marketing team from Flow Hive - Saadi Allan, and Binky Harvey-Jones and Mirabai Nicholson-Mckellar, who have created our amazing video and advised us on all aspects of our public presence. Our social media expert, Dianne Masri, has been keeping people informed throughout this campaign, with help from Michele Seminara and Sian Darling.

Steve Patrick (Wanta Jampijinpa) is a Warlpiri elder and artistic director of the Milpirri festival of indigenous music and dance. He has been a recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Indigenous Fellowship and has taught Warlpiri culture at the Australian National University and other tertiary institutions in Australia and overseas. Steve has published academic papers on Kurdiji ideas and indigenous cultural practice. A highly regarded musician and painter, Steve lives and works in Lajamanu community.

Dr Fiona Shand is a researcher and clinical psychologist. Based at the Black Dog Institute, her work focuses on suicide prevention, and particularly on e-health interventions to prevent suicide. She has published extensively in the alcohol and other drugs field and in suicide prevention. Her current research includes a large, community-wide suicide prevention trial being conducted in four New South Wales regions covering a population of 850,000 people. Using an adaptive research design, this research acknowledges the complexity of suicide and uses multiple, integrated prevention strategies. Fiona is also co-designer of an sms-based intervention to support young people following a suicide attempt. This intervention is being piloted in two large public hospitals.

Dr Judith Crispin is a cultural historian, photographer and poet. Together with Drew Baker, Judith has produced large-scale 3D virtual reconstructions of a destroyed Armenian cemetery in exhibitions across Italy and Australia as part of an ACU research project. Judith's work is regularly published in newspapers and journals. She has directed cultural institutions, academic programs and research projects, and has taught cultural history in universities across Australia, France and Germany. Judith has written extensively on social justice photography, poetry and music and has regularly engaged the public through talks, symposia, and forums. She has published monographs of photography, literature and scholarly research. Judith has been working with the Warlpiri people for five years and spends several months each year living in community.

Drew Baker is a technologist working in cultural heritage and archaeology. Drew was born in the United Kingdom and developed a passion for cultural history and computers at an early age. He has worked with cultural material for over 20 years creating 3D virtual worlds of archaeological sites and museum artefacts as well as recording and preserving intangible cultural assets. Drew has taught applied 3D visualisation at King’s College London, UK and was the education work package leader for the flagship Virtual Museum Transnational Network (V-MUST) funded by the European Commission

The creators of Kurdiji 1.0 acknowledge that in some circumstances it will be appropriate for people, suffering from depression, to seek additional help. If you or anyone you know needs help: please contact:

This is the last week of our Kurdiji 1.0 Aboriginal suicide prevention app crowdfunding campaign. It is also reconciliation week!

We'd like to express our gratitude to everyone who has donated, sent messages of support, or helped spread the word about our project.

We'd also like to acknowledge the Aboriginal elders and non-Aboriginal scholars who have paved the way for this project with their advocacy and sharing of culture. We've sent you some of their words during this campaign and we hope you've found their insights as valuable as we have.

Young Aboriginal people are taking their own lives at an unprecedented rate. Our campaign has proven that people all over the world are willing to stand with Aboriginal Australia and fight to prevent suicides. When we began this campaign we couldn't have known that so many of you would support the Warlpiri elders in their efforts to save Indigenous lives.

We have raised $117,389 in just under seven weeks, from crowdfunding and philanthropy, but we need to raise another $162,611 to bring the project to fruition. We are very grateful to Sacred Fire Foundation, Australian Communities Foundation and James N Kirby Foundation for their large donations, as well as to those individuals who have given generously.

What we've raised so far is enough to start work on the app. On June 10th we will drive, four days into the desert, to Lajamanu community and begin work with the elders. We will be regularly posting images and videos from our work there.

But we won't be able to finish the app and get it into the hands of those who need it, unless we reach target. We lose three Aboriginal lives a week to suicide and four out of five of these suicides are children between the ages of 10 and 14. The elders have an answer for vulnerable people but they need to develop their app in order to deliver it.

So we need your help.

Please share this video widely, even if you've already shared it previously. And let your networks know about the campaign.

This week's historic decision at Uluru opened the way toward reconciliation and treaties with Aboriginal Australia. Let's send a message to our elders that Aboriginal lives are important. Let's help realise their dream of an app that reconnects young people with country, culture and community.

We are grateful for the donations, messages and shares from all our supporters.

Thanks to a sizeable donation from the James N Kirby Foundation, we have raised $107, 395 of our $280,000 goal so far. We would like to express our most sincere appreciation to the James N Kirby foundation and its chairman Helen Kirby - who personally advocated for this project and its Indigenous creators.

With just on two weeks left to run on our campaign, we have a lot of work to do. We are speaking with other foundations and trusts and continuing work on our crowdfunding. But we need your help now, more than ever.

Whenever you share our campaign, repost from our Facebook page, retweet or tell a friend about our fundraising efforts, you are personally taking a stand against rising suicide rates in Aboriginal Australia. And while a $5 or $10 donation may not seem like much, it all adds up. Warlpiri people often check this GoFundMe page and their comments to me are always about the number of supporters - not the amounts contributed. When you donate $5 you are telling Indigenous communities that you care what happens to them.

I know we can achieve this goal together. Thank you for sharing our journey.

Thank you to all our supporters. We are in the home stretch of our campaign now with 18 days left to run. We've had a lot of interest from philanthropic trusts and hope to report some good news soon. All of the ground we have gained has been because of your support - your donations, your engagement and your advocacy. I know you've all given hugely of your time and resources, but I hope you will continue to stand with us for the remainder of the campaign.

Language is one of the four pillars of Kurdiji - the others being law, kinship and ceremony. Together these pillars create the home within - a centre of stability and resilience for Aboriginal people. Kurdiji 1.0 Aboriginal suicide prevention app will disseminate these central ideas in a bid to save young Indigenous lives.

"Our language is sacred to us. Every Aboriginal language is sacred for those who speak it. Words are given to us by the land and those words are sacred. What does it mean to an Aboriginal culture? The land needs words, the land speaks for us and we use the language for this. Words make things happen—make us alive. Words come not only from our land but also from our ancestors. Knowledge comes from Akerre, my own language and sacred language. Language is ownership; language is used to talk about the land. Language is what we see in people. Language is what we know of people—we know of him or her. If they speak my sacred language, I must be related to their kinships. Language is how people identify themselves. Being you is to know your language. It is rooted in your relationship from creation—in your kinship that cycles from then and there, onwards and onwards. It is like that root from the tree. Language is a community—a group of people. Not only do you speak that language but generations upon generations of your families have also spoken it. The language recognises and identifies you, who you are and what is you. Sacred language does have its own language."
(Amelia Turner, Arrernte elder)

Thank you to everyone who has donated to this campaign - and who continues to support us by sharing our video. We have been garnering philanthropic support since the campaign began and hope soon to have news of new donations from trusts and foundations. With only 20 days before the end of the campaign, we need your help more than ever.

Please let your networks know about what we are trying to achieve, and encourage people to donate. With enough public support we can return power for mental health initiatives to Indigenous elders.

Something of the importance of ceremony, one of the four 'pillars' of Kurdiji (along with law, kinship and language) is illustrated in the following video.

On 26 October 1985, custodianship of Uluru and neighbouring Kata Tjuta was returned to its Anangu traditional owners. The ceremony remains one of the most significant moments in the Aboriginal land-rights movement.

25 years after the Hand Back Ceremony of Uluru to the Anangu People, a commemorative ceremony was held at Uluru which included dance, music and story.

Ceremony is a living, vital and current practice that contributes to the wellbeing and mental health of Aboriginal people. Kurdiji 1.0 will reconnect young Indigenous people with ceremony, kinship, law and language - in order to increase resilience and prevent suicides.

Yes, the way is true. We all need remember always that every death be accidental. No other reality. Only by accident can life end. Everybody need know this now. Please can persons making this website tell the old men, I know how important this is, for everybody knowing end of life always accident.

Yes, the way is true. We all need remember always that every death be accidental. No other reality. Only by accident can life end. Everybody need know this now. Please can persons making this website tell the old men, I know how important this is, for everybody knowing end of life always accident.